Liam gillman



A W; GILL'MAN & s. SPENCER.

' Bottling Machine.

Patented June 8 1880.

N.PETER8, PNOTD-LI'DIOGRAFHER. WASHINGTON. D. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

ALEXANDER V. GILLMAN AND SAMUEL SPENCER, OF THE CASTLE BREWERY, ST. GEORGES ROAD, SOUTHWARK, ENGLAND.

BOTTLlNG-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 228,625, dated June 8, 1880.

Application filed March 15, 1880.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that we, ALEXANDER WIL- LIAM GILLMAN and SAMUEL SPENCER, both of the Castle Brewery, St. Georges Road,

'Southwark, in the county of Surrey, England,

have invented new and useful Improvements in Bottling-Machines, which improvements are fully set forth in the following specification, reference being bad to the accompanying drawings.

The invention has for its object improvements in means or apparatus employed in bottling beer and other liquids under the pressure of carbonic-acid gas, and relates to the employment of a novel arrangement and combination of parts to insure the bottles, whether clear or opaque, being filled to a given height, to give a regulated vent to the air in the bottles in the act of. bottling, and to prevent as much as possible the frothing and waste of the beer or other liquid when chargin g the bottles therewith.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation, Fig. 2 is a side elevation, and Fig. 3 is a plan, of bottling apparatus having some of our improvements applied thereto; and Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, S, 9, 10, and 11 are detail views of parts thereof drawn to a larger scale.

a is the frame or standard of the apparatus. b is the support or table on which the bottle is held by the pressure of the foot on the treadle 0 against the india-rubber ring or packingpiece d at the under side of the conical corking-tube e. f is the plunger, which is provided with a toothed rack, f, on one side, which is taken into by and receives motion from a toothed pinion, g, on the axis of which is fixed a lever-handle, g.

Thus far the apparatus is of a similar character to ordinary bottling apparatus, and forms no part of our invention.

()ur invention consists in peculiar arrangements of parts to insure the bottles, whether clear or opaque, being filled to a given height, to give a regulated vent to the air in the bottles in the act of bottling, and to prevent as much as possible the frothing and waste of the beer or other liquid when charging the bottles therewith. For this purpose we at- (ModeL) Patented in England March 29, 1876.

tach to the conical corking-tube 0 a stuffingbox, 0, through which a curved air-vent tube, It, is passed, so as to descend to a given depth into the neck of the bottle to be filled. This air-vent tube 71. is connected to the upper end of a lever, 71, in which is a space or chamber provided with a weighted valve, 7L which will permit of the escape of air from the bottle when a given pressure is attained, thus permitting the air to escape from the bottle as the latter is being filled.

In order to facilitate adjustment of the venttube It to a proper depth in the neck of the bottle, we provide a stop, 1', to act in connection with the lever h, and we also provide another stop, 1', to act, in connection'with the lever h, to prevent the accidental withdrawal of the vent-tube h from the stuffing-box 0. By these means we are enabled to fill ordinary opaque or semi-opaque bottles to a given height with certainty.

Instead of causing the beer or other liquid to be admitted to the bottles through an annular opening in the conical corking-tube e, as heretofore, we fix in the side of the conical corking-tube e an inclined tube, 0 through 'which the liquid is supplied to the bottles, by

which means the liquid is caused to impinge in a stream against the inside of the bottleneck, by which, aided by the regulated vent before described, the frothing of the beer or other liquid is to a great extent prevented.

The lever h is fixed to an axis, h, on which is mounted a lever, k by which the air-vent tube is inserted into and withdrawn from the bottle-neck; and in order to insure the stoppage of the supply before the withdrawal of the air-vent tube h from the bottle-neck, the axis IL3 is, by toothed gearing h connected to the spindle k of the supply cock or valve k, and the lever h is mounted loosely on its axis, and the toothed wheel h has a pin, h", projecting therefrom, which acts in combination with a segment-wheel, h", keyed 011 the axis 7L3, thereby enabling the lever h to be worked through a segment of a circle without giving motion to the air-vent tube h, and dur ing that motion operate the valve-spindle 70 We also connect to the lever h, or to other moving part connected with the air-vent tube h by means of a link or wire, 1, a catch, Z, which, so long as the air-vent tube h is in the bottleneck, remains in position to act in connection with a projection, f or it may be teeth on the plunger 1, and thereby prevent the possibility of the corking-lever being operated, by which means the accidental crushing of the air-vent tube by the cork or by the plungerf is prevented; or, instead of the arrangement before described for supplying the liquid to the bottles and giving vent to the air therein, we may employ a curved tube similar to that shown at h, Fig. 1, passing through a stufiing-box, c, on the conical eorking-tube 0, into the lower part of the bottle, to supply the beer or other liquid under pressure thereto; but in such case p we form such tube double, so that the supply can pass through one portion or tube thereof and the vent out through the other. The mouth of the vent will be adjusted to the height to which it is desired to fill the bottles.

In carrying this arrangement into effect the tube 0 would be dispensed with and the curved simply-tube would be connected in any suitable manner with the supply-cock, and instead of employing a weighted lever to act upon the valve [t a spring-lever would be en'rployed in lieu thereof, as the motion of the curved supply-tube would be greater than that of the curved vent-tube shown in, the drawings, and therefore a weighted lever would be inapplicable. We have not thought it necessary to represent this modification by drawings, as such will be readily understood from the above description.

The arrangements heretofore described for simultaneously operating the supply-cock and vent-tube and for preventing the accidental crushing of the vent-tube are also applicable to the combined supply and vent tube herein lastly described. We also place a bottle in position on a stand, m, under the outlet of a tube, a, connected to a funnel, n, to receive the overflow of liquid from the vent-tube h and weighted valve 7L2 through a tube, h, connected to the air-vent tube or weighted valve, by which means all waste in bottling is prevented. l/Ve also, in order to insure the proper saturation of the beer orother liquid with gas, apply to the interior of the cask or other ves sel containing the beer or other liquid under the pressure of carbonic-acid gas a rouser or stirrer, as will be well understood, which, when required, may have a slow rotary motion given thereto to make the liquid circulate and cause it to absorb a suflicient quantity of gas.

We prefer to employ tWO supply-pipes, 0 0, connected each with a separate cask or vessel containing theliquid under pressure, and capable of being separately connected and disconnected with the bottling apparatus, thereby saving time in the use of the apparatus, as the latter will. not require to remain inoperative for any length of time while disconnecting an empty cask and connecting a full one. These pipes 0 0 are connected to a tube, 1), through which the liquid passes to a strainer, q, whence it passes, by the tube 1), to the barrel of the supply cock or valve If desired, more than one bottle can be filled and corked at the same time by simply multiplying the arrangements of parts herein described and connecting the duplicated parts together, so that one supplying and one corking lever only are required.

Having thus described the nature ofour said invention and the mode in which we carry the same into effect, we would have it understood that what we claim is 1. The combination, in a bottling-machine, of a conical corking-tube, e, a stufiing-box, e, air-vent tube h, and weighted valve ]L2, as and for the purpose described.

2. The combination of conical corking-tube c, inclined tube 0 vent-tube h, and means for inserting and withdrawing said vent-tube from the bottleneck, as set forth.

3. The combination, with the supply-valve it, having spindle W, of the lever 71/, toothed gearing [L5 0, pin its, and segment-wheel k keyed on the axis k as and for the purpose set forth.

4- The combination, with the plungerf, having teeth or projeetionf of the stop Z, as and for the purpose set forth.

ALEX. W. GILLMAN. SAML. SPENCER.

Witnesses:

B. J. B. MILLS,

O. M. WVHITE, Both of 23 Southampton Buildings, London. 

